Azula wanted to break down the door to her brother's office. Zuko had locked himself in there with Chise and Mayu, probably to ask their advice on how to deal with their current situation. She wanted to shake him and force him to understand once and for all that this was not going to work. That he had to figure out what he felt for her, and what he wanted their relationship to be like. There was no one else could do it for him.

He had made so much progress with everything else. He was a good leader, he knew how to handle the people around him, and he knew how to make others listen to him without using force or manipulation - that was more than any of the previous Fire Lords had been able to do, including Azula herself... yet now he was regressing to his old self. Just a confused boy waiting for someone to give him all the answers.

You're being unfair to him, Azula.

"Shut up" she said, then immediately wanted to chastise herself. The doctors had warned her many times to not interact with her delusions. For the most part, she had managed to ignore all the voices.

All except her mother's.

You know you're gonna have to talk to me eventually, honey.

Azula hated it when the voices made sense - it was so much easier to not pay attention to them when what they said was nonsense. And her mother just had to be the one that only seemed to say perfectly logical things.

She couldn't ignore her forever. It had been a miracle that she had managed to do it for so long, but it wouldn't last.

Zuko and his blind friend had found her about a year after Zuko's coronation. She was hiding with her new family on some small, remote island in the south of the Earth Kingdom. Their father had tried to find her himself a few times throughout the years she had spent banished, and sent some of his allies after her. Ursa managed to avoid them long enough to never confirm her suspicion that he had decided to get rid of the one person (he was aware of) who knew the truth about Azulon's death.

She had visited Azula only once, and it triggered one of her worst crises. Azula couldn't remember much of it, only that she went absolutely still the second she saw her mother, then started crying. She had vague memories about screaming, trying to firebend, but being unable to, and seeing some strange figures surrounding them. She couldn't tell if it had happened hours or days later, but Zuko had promised her he wouldn't bring their mother to see her anymore, unless Azula herself asked him to.

How long do you think you can avoid how you feel? What has it ever brought you other than misery?

Shut up, she wanted to scream.

But Azula knew what she had to do. She was trying to get her life back, but she would never be able to do it unless she managed to find a way to move on from what was holding her back.

I know you're scared, but you can do this. Let yourself feel, her brother had told her once.

He should listen to his advice every now and again. He did have a brain inside that thick skull.